Here's to a great bento year! Open thread for your questions and comments about bentos

2 Jan 2013 by maki

Happy New Year everyone!

The start of a brand new year is the time for resolutions of course, and many of you reading this may have made bentos part of your plans for 2013. So, if you have any questions or comments about bento-ing - anything at all - this is an open thread post for you to pose them. If you are brand new to bento making, don’t be shy and ask anything you like - I know that going through the hundreds of articles here on JustBento can be a bit intimidating. On the other hand, if you’re a bento veteran you may want to let the newbies know what about bento making has worked, and what hasn’t, for you. And whatever your level of bento-making expertise, if you like let us know what your goals for 2013 are. I’ll be answering the most frequently asked and/or interesting questions together in future posts. (Note: I’ll be reading your comments on Facebook too but it’s best to post your comment here on the site, right below.)

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1) Anything you'd normally eat, you can pack for a bento.
2) If I know I'm in a pinch that week, I'll buy prepared dumplings to steam and pack them. Also, cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, and hard boiled eggs all can be bought pre-made and just assembled/prepped. Buy pre-cooked chicken and veggies and make a salad bento. Make a sandwich, pack that.
4) Steam the broccoli or cauliflower, mix with some pre-made cheese sauce or dressing of choice. I like a honey-mustard. Steaming is easy. If you don't have a steamer, buy a frozen steam-in-the-bag mix and follow the directions.

I just did my first bento of 2013 today! Wish it was for happier reasons haha, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I do best at this when in a community so I'll be back here frequently and ask any of you to check out my bento posts and offer encouragement/suggestions! Happy New Year everybody!

I got 2 Kokeshi Bento boxes for Xmas this year, and I'm in love with them already. But I'm not usually a big soup/stew person. I seem to have a similar diet to Maki's (mostly veggies, a bit of carbs, lots of proteins), but I'm not sure what would be good to pack in a Kokeshi that would use the cute little bowl.

The only real dietary restriction I can think of, btw, is that I'm migraine-prone, so there are a small handful of foods I shouldn't eat for that reason (but substitutes can be easily made).

Since the bowl isn't leak-proof and the idea is to make soup with hot water and concentrate, I'm stumped. I normally use the soup bowl part of my Mr. Bento for everything but. It's just another dish to me.

Hello everyone!! Happy 2013!
I love this site and already ordered the book, which i'm sure it's very useful ^.^
The big problem I have following all the recipes and tips is that I can't have any sugar, any salt or fermented sauce (and many other intolerances that are less problematic in bento-ing). That means no vinegar, no sake and no soy sauce!
I love bentos and I'm trying to substitute these items with other ingredients I can take (lemon), but sometimes it's just helpless.
Do you you think there's any hope for me?

I have to make a balanced one-dish meal with high fibre in the appearance of a bento set for an assignment. I've been searching through alot of websites but cannot find any recipe that is easy to make. In addition, I have to make this bento set in one hour and I have to show at least one method of cooking. Can anyone help?

I guess you mean that thing used for the little goldfish in the jelly? That is called neri-an or nerikiri, and it's made from sweetened white bean paste colored with food coloring. It's very fiddly to make though, and very delicate...not really practical for everyday bentos ^_^;